For a Few Demons More

joint with his elbows on the table and his hands wrapped around a half pound of beef. He wasn't much older than me, forced to grow up fast when his parents died. I wanted to ask him if his kids would have pointed ears when they were born, but I didn't. 'I won't do it again,' I said suddenly, not knowing why.

At that, Trent turned to face me. 'Break into my home? Is that a promise?'

'No. But I won't.'

Quen cleared his throat to cover a chuckle. Green eyes fixed on mine, Trent nodded. He didn't look happy, and I was feeling sorry for him. 'That,' he said, 'I'll believe.'

Quen stiffened, but his attention was on the sky, not me. I put my hand up when I recognized Jenks's wings. 'Rache,' he panted, landing on my hand and grasping my thumb when he nearly fell off. 'We got a problem… coming down the road… in a '67 Chevy.'

'Better than a trip wire,' I said dryly to Quen, wondering if I should move my new cuffs from my shoulder bag to my hip. Then I asked Jenks, 'Who is it? Denon?'

The car in question came around the corner: a powder blue convertible with the top open. Engine racing, it pulled into the far end of the lot. Quen shifted from casual to protective. Pulse pounding, I tapped a line. The rush of power took me by surprise, and I staggered. 'I'm fine,' I said, pushing Trent's arm off me. 'Stay behind me.'

'It's Lee!' Trent said, his face alight. 'My God, Lee!'

My mouth dropped open. The car lurched to a halt, parked ten feet away and cantwise to the lines. Trent stepped forward, and I yanked him back. Lee escaped Al?

The man turned off the car and pulled his head up, smiling at the three of us and squinting from the sun. Leaving the keys in the ignition, he opened the door and got out.

'Lee… ?' I stammered, not believing it. A rush of guilt swept me. Though I had tried to prevent it, I had been there when Al took Lee as his familiar instead of me. That he had escaped was impossible, but here he was, angling his trim, surfer-boy body out of the car with an unconscious grace. His small nose and thin lips gave him casual good looks, and his Asian heritage was obvious in the straight, severely black hair cut short above his ears. Looking confident and cocky in a faintly frumpy black suit, he strode forward with hands outstretched.

'It's not Lee,' Jenks said, having moved himself to my shoulder. 'He doesn't smell right, and that's not a witch's aura. Rache, that isn't Lee!'

Shock became mistrust. 'Stay back!' I said, jerking Trent behind me when he moved.

He stumbled, then caught his balance. Scowling, he tugged his shirt straight. 'The sun is up, Morgan. I know a few rules about demons, and that one you can't break. Lee escaped. What did you expect? He's an expert at ley line magic. Deal with the jealousy.'

'Jealous!' I barked, not believing this. 'You want to bet your life on it?' Lee was still coming forward, and, putting out a hand, I shouted, 'Stop right there! I'm telling you to stop!'

Lee obediently halted ten feet away, his black hair gleaming in the light. He drew a pair of round sunglasses from a pocket and perched them on his small nose, hiding his brown eyes. Hands spread wide in innocence wronged, he almost bowed. 'Good afternoon, Rachel Mariana Morgan. You look eminently ravishable with the sun in your hair, love.'

The blood drained from my face, and I took a faltering step backward. It wasn't Lee. It was Al. The voice had been Lee's, but the cadence and pronunciation were Algaliarept's. How?

'Holy crap! It's Al!' Jenks squeaked, and his grip on my ear tightened.

'Get him in the church,' I hissed at Quen Feeling betrayed, I almost panicked. The sun was up! This wasn't fair! There was scuffling behind me and Trent's indignant complaint. Damn it, I thought. This isn't a committee decision. 'Get him out of here!' I yelled.

Al's smile widened. He stepped toward us.

There wasn't time. I lunged forward, my forearms hitting the pavement, my fingers brushing the white marking of the basketball court, and my toes taking the rest of my body weight. 'Rhombus!' I shouted. Tears sprang up at the gravel cutting the soft part of my arms, but with a welcoming drop of power through me, the amber wash of ever-after flowed up from the earth, arching to a close over our heads.

Hurt, I let my knees touch the pavement, and I slowly got up, brushing my arms and palms free of grit. Damn it, I had ruined Ceri's present. I glanced first at Al—who looked mildly insulted—then Trent and Quen, safe inside my circle with me.

The older elf was stiff, clearly not liking being in my bubble—large as it was. Face tight, he eyed the black smears of demon smut crawling over my amber-tinted enclosure. It looked particularly ugly in the sun, and since Quen was skilled in ley line magic, he knew that the black was a reflection of what I had done to my soul—and the only way I could have gotten it that fast was by playing with demon magic.

Angry, I backed up, still rubbing my arms. 'I got it twisting a demon curse to save my boyfriend's life,' I said in explanation. 'I didn't kill anything. I didn't hurt anyone.'

Quen's face was empty of emotion. 'You hurt yourself,' he said.

'Yeah. I guess I did.'

Trent scuffed his feet. 'That's not Lee,' he whispered, his face ashen.

Jenks landed on my shoulder—having flown off when I hit the ground. 'Good God, the man is dumber than Tink's dildo. Didn't I say it wasn't him? Did my lips not move and say it wasn't him? I'm small, not blind!'

Recovering his earlier aplomb, Al smiled. Trent retreated into Quen's protection, away from me and Al both. Al had mauled Trent the same night the demon had first attacked me; Trent had a right to be afraid. But the sun was up. This could not be happening.

We all jumped when Al poked a finger at my bubble, and the black seemed to pool in the ripple he made. 'No, not Lee,' the demon said. 'Yet it is him. One hundred percent.'

'How?' I stammered. Had we been spelled into thinking it was daylight when it was really after sunset?

'The sun?' Al looked up, taking off his glasses and basking in it. 'It is splendidly pretty without the red sheen. I quite like it.' His gaze fell to me, and I shivered. 'Think about it.'

One hundred percent Lee, but not Lee? That left only one possibility. And whereas if someone had asked me Monday, I would have said it was impossible, I now found it remarkably easy to believe, after having shoved a demon out of my thoughts just three days ago.

'You're possessing him,' I said, feeling my stomach clench.

Lee clapped his hands. He was wearing white gloves, and it looked wrong, so very wrong.

'You can't do that,' Trent said from my elbow. 'It's a—'

'Fairy tale?' Al brushed a piece of nonexistent dust from himself. 'No, just very expensive and normally impossible. It's not supposed to last past sunup either. But your father?' Al looked from Trent, to me, and back to Trent. 'He made Lee special.'

It had been mockingly sincere, and I went cold. Lee's blood could kindle demon magic. So could mine. Ah, swell. Just peachy damn keen. But Lee was smarter than this. He knew that Al couldn't hurt me and get away with it. There was more. We hadn't heard it all.

I could smell the clean scent of crushed green leaves, and I realized Trent was sweating. 'You tricked him,' Trent said, the distress clear in his voice. I didn't think it was fear for himself. I think he was truly distressed that his childhood friend was alive and trapped in his own head by a demon.

Al put his shades on. 'I got the better end of the deal, yes. But I'm following it to the letter. He wanted out. I gave him his freedom. In a manner of speaking.'

'Lee,' Trent said, moving forward, 'fight it,' he encouraged.

Al laughed, and I drew Trent back. 'Lee's gone,' I said, feeling ill. 'Forget him.'

'Yes, listen to the witch.' Al wiped his eye with an elegant hankie drawn from a pocket. He wasn't using the ever-after. His sunglasses had been in a pocket, too. His abilities were diminished to Lee's. It went along with what Ceri had said about demons being no more powerful than a witch, apart from several thousand years of storing charms and curses inside themselves. If he was truly in Lee's body, then he was limited to what Lee could do until he brewed himself back to omnipotence.

Very expensive. Normally impossible. It added up to one person. One crazy person. 'Newt did this, didn't she?'

Jenks swore softly, and Al spun, his anger looking wrong on Lee's face. 'You are getting annoyingly perceptive,' he said. 'I could have figured it out on my own.'